September 29, 2008

Taro Aso, a direct descendant of the great 19th century political revolutionary Toshimichi Okubo, is the brashest and most charismatic prime minister since Jun'ichiro Koizumi (left). But if Koizumi is Elvis (indeed, the only foreign head of state to visit Graceland), then Aso (right) is Edward G. Robinson (middle).

September 27, 2008

Chapter 5 (Jougetsu)

六官 [りっかん] The Rikkan (also: Rokukan or Rokkan; "Rikkan" is preferred by Daijisen), or Six Ministries: Administration, Education, Protocol, Defense, Justice, Public Works. Also known as the Ministries of Heaven, Earth, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

I'm not sure how one goes about "tackling" such a problem. At least she's married and has a kid. Though given current fertility rates in Japan (1.3), she's still .8 children behind. Maybe if McCain loses the election, she could recruit Sarah Palin as a consultant.

September 23, 2008

Fitzgerald's "The Aeneid"

If the word "classics" intimidates you, consider the Fitzgerald translation of The Aeneid. I never could abide the Dryden long enough to get past the first page: all that incessant rhyming! (I don't understand this compunction to rhyme translated verse--haiku, for example--since it means imposing a form on a form already distorted by the translation process.)

Granted, even with that hurdle mostly surmounted, there are still obstacles: lots of names I have no idea how to pronounce, bounteous references to historical incidents and heroic characters I know too little about, portentous foreshadowings such as Hannibal crossing the Alps and Caesar crossing the Rubicon that I missed completely until I read Fitzgerald's commentary at the end.

Nevertheless, a good story is a good story, and this is a ripping good yarn. A strong authorial voice (it helps to read it aloud in your head as you go along) and a galloping pace guaranteed to fill the cheap seats, while sneaking in enough high-brow commentary to keep the intellectuals tuned in. It convinces me that, indeed, Sam Raimi is the definitive modern interpreter of the Greco-Roman tradition.

Of course, Shakespeare accomplished the same. And like Shakespeare, Virgil is a master of the concrete metaphor and the action verb, as well as being an astute observer of human behavior. His analysis of how small dust-ups can lead (or be manipulated) into all-out war resonates well with contemporary geopolitics.

And there's something for everybody. Today it'd be called Aeneas, the miniseries. Every element of the modern dramatic style is touched upon at some point: man against man, man against nature, man against god, man against himself; you've got romance, adventure, political intrigue. A whole chapter for sport enthusiasts. And lots of combat scenes.

With lots of explicit detail, who stabbed who where, and where the blood and guts went. This isn't depersonalized violence. Before some poor piker gets his head whacked off, Virgil takes a few moments to tell us who he is, where he came from, what he had for breakfast, and how he loved his mom. It's rather disturbing, frankly.

All of this plays out under the gaze of the Roman pantheon, which is half the fun. Jupiter tries very hard to be a good deist--not getting involved unless to answer pleas based on individual merit--except that Juno and Venus are running around getting the rest of the gods involved in their knock-down, drag-out proxy war.

Juno, for reasons I am not well-informed about enough to explain, hates the Trojans with a white-hot passion. Aeneas, leader of the Trojans, is Venus's son by a mortal father (these gods are unapologetically polyandrous). Having grown up with the Botticellian image fixed in my mind, Virgil's Venus was a pleasant surprise. None of this demure, floating in on the half-shell stuff. She's tough, feisty, cunning, loyal (to Aeneas, that is; when she snuggles up to husband Vulcan to get him to crank out some quality armaments for the Trojans, he grouses, "You know, I'd do it even if you didn't sleep with me").

There are a number of strong female characters. Camilla, for example, kicks Trojan butt all over the place, and Juturna, Turnus's nymph half-sister, does Juno's dirty work, mostly in order to keep her brother (the villain in the piece) from getting killed by Aeneas. Though in the ends-justify-being-plain-mean department, Juno is way ahead of all of them. Husband Jupiter finally pulls her aside and says, "Enough already!" In an ironic twist, Juno wins for losing: as part of the deal, the Trojan identity is subsumed by the Etruscan Italians.

Fitzgerald comments on the curiosity of the Romans (way, way after the fact) identifying with the Trojans in their founding myths, along with a fair amount of trashing of the Greek demigods (i.e., all the enemies of the Trojans) in the tale. It was a way of one-upping Greek civilization while stealing from it.

What impresses me the most is the extent to which The Aeneid fits into the modern, western, narrative tradition, both in style and subject matter. And, additionally, how un-odd the religious context is. Many scenes of sacrificing animals and beseeching gods could easily be confused with Old Testament accounts.

Consider as well the concept of the hero being the child of a god and mortal parent. The transition from patron god to patron saint is a simple one. I think Virgil would be at home with the theological dynamics of Touched by an Angel. For example, like Juno and Venus, Camilla's patron god, Diana, is limited in the extent to which she can interfere with Fate and keep Camilla from harm once she decides to join forces with Turnus. Human free will seems to rule the liberty of the gods rather than the other way around.

It makes me believe that Rome never fell. In the same way that China absorbed invader after invader, instead of conquering Rome, the barbarians from Northern Europe became Roman, and so brought to Britain and then to America that self-dramatizing, essentially Ptolemaic view of ourselves. The universe revolves around us--we are the cause of everything good or bad that happens--and in the end, if we pray to the proper gods, they will be on our side.

(John Hamer analogizes The Aeneid with The Book of Mormon here. I consider the comparison apt.)

September 21, 2008

Utah's arcane liquor laws dictate that only "club members" may consume alcohol in a bar, which has come to mean that a token "membership" must be purchased along with the drink. The amount of alcohol in each shot is also regulated. In restaurants, food must be ordered with a drink and must be delivered by the server.

Retail purchase of "packaged" liquor, wine, and "heavy beer" (over 3.2 percent) is allowed only at State Liquor Stores.

With an eye on the multi-billion dollar tourism industry, Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. (a devout Mormon) has sided with the hospitality industry's efforts to normalize Utah's liquor laws. He faces a conservative legislature, and a thumbs down from the Mormon church would kill the effort on the spot.

Just this week, the church intimated that it wouldn't object to the laws being revised.

September 20, 2008

Chapter 4 (Jougetsu)

In Japan, the koseki (戸籍), or local census record, is where all of a person's demographic information is recorded and constantly updated. You don't legally exist without a koseki record.

"Hearing Shoukei referred to in such a familiar manner . . . . " The word here is yobisute (呼び捨て), literally "call" + "throw away." It means addressing a person of elevated status without the accompanying honorific prefix, such as -san or -sama, and suggests either rudeness or intimacy.

The most common way immortal life is bestowed is by having one's name listed in the Registry of Wizards. In chapter two of A Thousand Leagues of Wind, Shoukei is punished by having her name removed from the Registry of Wizards.

September 18, 2008

In the September 14 issue of New York magazine, Boris Kachka documents the decline and fall of the New York publishing business in excruciating detail.

What's amazing is how much the publishing business today resembles the music business a decade ago. The latter thought its business was selling pieces of plastic, not music. The former still thinks its business is selling pieces of paper, not stories. In the real world, paying 99 cents for a three-minute track is generous, and the real world won.

Ditto paying $4.95 for a 100,000 word novel. The panicked reaction to Amazon and the Kindle is telling. The industry is so scared about being overtaken by the next iTunes that can't contemplate becoming the next iTunes. As Kachka quotes one publishing insider, "We're an industry more willing to watch the boat sink than rock it a wee bit."

September 16, 2008

I want my DTV (part 2)

Setting up the Zenith DTT901 Digital-to-Analog Converter was easier than setting up a VCR (though I had to set the VCR back to channel 3, the default for the DTT901). Then I selected the time zone and set the default RF out to channel 4. The DTT901 sits in the TV-VCR RF loop.

With my hand-made, 300 ohm UHF dipole antenna, the initial auto scan found 18 channels, 10 of which belong to the two PBS stations and the Utah Education Network. Obviously the cost of DTV--once the equipment is up and running--is the programming. And PBS/university stations have lots.

The DTT901 grabbed Larry Miller's independent (owner of the Utah Jazz), but as with the CW station, it gets iffy at times, like a scratched DVD. KUPX, an Ion affiliate, never came in well in analog and didn't come in at all, even though it's got the most powerful transmitter.

Checking the signal locator site at TV Fool, I see that the digital transmitters in Salt Lake City are all in the same place. I reoriented my dipole closer to 312 degrees north (adjusted the strings holding it to the bookcase). A rescan added the four Ion channels.

Two of the problematic channels are 46 and 48, and my dipole is tuned for the bottom of the UHF spectrum (meaning when I made it several years ago, I just guestimated). The next project will be to retune the dipole (which can be done with a pair of wire clippers).

Otherwise, my initial impression of DTV is the same as when I got TV Japan: Wow! No static! A completely clean signal. One of my hobbies when I was a kid was fixing old tube TVs (going extinct at the time). Static and interference and hum and signal echoes were facts of life. No more.

The only glitch so far is the remote. My current One for All universal remote handles all the functions of the TV, VCR, DVD player and Dish receiver. But not the converter. I'll have to get a new one that can be programmed with the necessary functions of the DTT901.

September 14, 2008

James Christensen's Voyage of the Basset (text by Alan Dean Foster and Renwick St. James) is the illustrated story of one Professor Algernon Aisling's journey in search of the ancient evidence of modern myths and legends. The title was inspired by Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle.

September 12, 2008

In Hungarian, the /cz/ in "Rakoczi" is pronounced similarly to the /ts/ in "bats" or the /tz/ in "Yahtzee" (as a single syllable). In the phonetic drift westward, English speakers would typically reduce the consonants just to /z/.

The name was inspired by Sigismund Rakoczi, who reigned briefly as Prince of Transylvania from 1607 to 1608. But a reader who was born and raised in Hungary sent me the following historical clarification:

I appreciated you weaving my Vaterland into the story, but on a gut level I was disturbed by the choice of name for the vampire sire, Rakoczi. That name evokes one of the most revered figures in Hungarian history, Prince Francis Rakoczi II, who led an uprising against the Habsburg empire between 1703 and 1711. The uprising (like most Hungarian ones) was crushed and he spent the rest of his life as an exile to Turkey. His figure is one deeply respected by most Hungarians.

She also helpfully provided a list of infamous Hungarian villains. Topping the list was Matyas Rakosi, the brutal dictator who ruled Hungary from 1945 to 1956, and described himself as "Stalin's best Hungarian disciple."

In all future editions of the novel, the "cz" will be changed to "s."

My correspondent also brought to my attention Countess Elizabeth Bathory, "possibly the most prolific serial killer in history," accused of killing "hundreds of girls and young women." I wish I could say that Milada was based on her, though I am intrigued by the similarities in retrospect.

The central component of the UPDB is an extensive set of Utah family histories, in which family members are linked to demographic and medical information. The UPDB includes diagnostic records on cancer, cause of death, and medical details associated with births. It also includes claims data from statewide inpatient hospital discharge records. The UPDB provides access to information on over 6.5 million individuals and supports more than 75 research projects.

The institute is named for Jon Huntsman, the founder of Huntsman Corporation, one of the world's largest chemical companies. His son is the current governor of Utah.

Louis Rukeyser, the long-time host of Wall $treet Week, coined the term "Elves" to refer to technical stock analysts. Technical analysts evaluate only the performance of a security in the financial markets in order to predict future behavior, not whatever product or service the company actually sells.

September 10, 2008

I want my DTV (part 1)

I'm sure you've see the PSAs for the impending February 2009 DTV switchover. Despite the fact that I've spent a good part of my life around high tech, I'm a late adopter. My last computer was a Frankensteined Windows 95 box. My JVC television is over a decade old as well.

I get TV Japan through Dish Network, but the satellite dish points off towards Hawaii, and except for a couple of public access channels (like the Pentagon Channel), doesn't provide any domestic programming. I'd have to get a second dish to get the regular slate of programs.

So I depend on terrestrial broadcasting. In other words, I was a prime candidate for one of those 40 dollar coupons.

This really is against my principles--nowhere in the Constitution is enshrined the inalienable right to watch television--but how can I turn up my nose after Congress went to all that trouble? And a cheap, high-tech toy with a remote? My geek genes light up like a Christmas tree.

Because I pay the "starving artist" marginal tax rate--well below the median--that means the rest of you are subsidizing my DTV. Thanks, everybody! (Though I suspect that sans those 40 dollar coupons, the retail price of a converter box would be, oh, about 40 dollars less.)

I did a little googling and ended up with the Zenith DTT901 Digital-to-Analog Converter (list $59.99). Circuit City had a small mountain of them in the TV section. Not one of those decisions I wrung my hands over. The only thing I'm debating now is how to hook it up.

September 08, 2008

would even venture to say that it's a great read. Having ardently stayed away from Twilight and almost all vampire related fiction, I was at the very least pleasantly surprised when I was captivated by the tight and nuanced writing in Eugene Woodbury's most recent release from Zarahemla Books.

Notes Maralise, "[The author] presents an unlikely story filled with real people and then lets human nature write the rest." Which is precisely what I set out to do. Nothing beats having one's intentions being taken exactly as intended.

September 04, 2008

Thmazing reviews Angel Falling Softly as part of his Erotic in LDS Lit series. He notes some stylistic problems at the beginning. I'm not surprised. This is where we did the most last-minute editing to tighten up the narrative.

Lacking specifics, though, I've pretty much lost the ability to judge this kind of thing (maybe in a year or two when I've regained some objectivity). At any rate, "most of the book [is] fine." Thmazing's conclusion:

[Angel Falling Softly is] a good book and I liked it. Yes, the sex is over many people's tolerance levels--I can respect that. Yes, it asks some interesting questions--I demand that. But no: it's not evil, it's not destructive, it's not even badly written (once, you know, you get a few dozen pages in).

And he suggests a new word to use when categorizing paranormal "spiritual" fiction: spirinormal.

September 03, 2008

In a previous post, I opined about the reluctance even in liberal Hollywood to truly address the full implications of female sexuality (and the risks and responsibilities that go with it). Steve Sailer provides an up-to-date political context in this comment about Sarah Palin:

Human beings have extremely strong emotions on the topic of [female] fertility. It's an obsession--look at the celebrity gossip columns these days. The who is sleeping with whom stuff bores people [right] now compared to the pregnancy news.

We're still addicted to the pack mentality: the desire of we lowly betas to know what the alphas are up to, because for our primordial geek ancestors studiously evolving bigger brains, the survival of the mentally fittest depended on the proper utilization of that knowledge.

The genetic software is still running in the kernel of our biological operating systems. One plausible reason for condoning patriarchy is that it gives the low man on the corporate or religious or military totem pole a pecking order and a little tribe of his own where he can be top dog.

Yes, I believe that the primary purpose of civilization is the civilizing of randy and violent young men. Just look what happens when society breaks down and anarchy breaks out. A feminist utopia it ain't. It's all primordial Big Man rule.

Nineteen-year-old Mormon missionaries are experts at spotting a pecking order and aligning themselves to it in perfect Gaussian distributions: those who salivate at the sight; those who shrug and resign themselves to it; and those who run fast in the opposite direction.

As Sailer concludes, "Modern people tell themselves they don't care about stuff like that, but they do. Oh, they do."

September 01, 2008

"Shadow of the Moon" revisions

1. TP: "Thus it is told that in the spring of the sixth year of Yosei, being the Era of the Blue Prophet, Keiki, minister of Kei, had lost the way, and calamity was visited upon the realm.

EW: In the Spring of the Sixth Year of Yosei, the Reign of the Late Empress Jokaku, the Taiho Keiki fell grievously ill with the Shitsudou. The Capital Gyouten was ravaged by Fire and Pestilence.

Literalism gets in the way of the meaning. The shitsudou is the disease that afflicts the kirin when the king strays from the Way. The En explains this in chapter 59.

2. TP: Then the people despaired, and lamented in song, believing that the General of Heaven had come to destroy Kei.

EW: The Lamentations of the People cried out across the Land, saying, The Gods of War will surely destroy Kei.

These are poetic terms--in many cases derived from classical Chinese--so it's hard to be definitive, but I think being too literal becomes a tad absurd.

3. TP: The moon waxed still as she was ruined upon the mountain [1] and buried thereafter in the land of Cold Springs. [2] Glory-King she had been for six years, the Prophet her death name for eternity.

EW: In the Fifth Month of that Year, the Empress Jokaku repaired to Mount Hou and there sought Pardon from Heaven and renounced the Throne. And so she died and was buried at Senryou. Her Reign lasted Six Years. Following her Death, she was given the Posthumous Name, Yo.

3.1. The verb usually means "to crumble into ruins" (kuzureru), but with the rare inflection used here (houzuru), it refers specifically to the death of a royal figure. Daijisen uses the following example: "The Showa Emperor has passed away."
3.2. Again, it depends on how literally you want to read the kanji.

4. TP: The Prophet ruined, the impostor Joyei rose in her place. Claiming the title of Glory-King, she entered Gyouten, and chaos spread like wildfire through the realm; the people's miseries were redoubled.

EW: With the Abdication of the Late Empress Yo, Joei usurped the Throne. Joei falsely named herself Royal Kei and entered Gyouten. The Kingdom was cast into Chaos.

Not in the original, but a logical inference.

5. TP: And then, during the seventh moon of the seventh year, Yoko Sun-Child [1] was chosen the next Glory-King of Kei: Yoko Sun-Child, of the surname Nakajima, and the true name [2] of Sekishi, the Red Child, who had been born as Taika over the Void Sea.

EW: In the Seventh Month of the Seventh Year, the Empress Youko, the Royal Kei of the Kingdom of Kei, acceded to the Throne. The Surname of the Empress Youko being Nakajima, her Imperial Insignia being Sekishi, or the Imperial Child, also meaning the Red Child, [3] she having been born a Taika.

5.1. The literal meaning of "Youko."
5.2. The term used here is azana. Daijisen defines it as "a name (in medieval China) other than the person's real name, or (in Japan) a pen name derived from a writer's real name."
5.3. I added these two parentheticals to explain the various readings of the kanji.

6. TP: In the first moon [1] of the seventh year she returned from the land of Hourai, and in the waning of the seventh moon, did bring succor to the land; and begging aid of Shoryu, Ever-King of En, she quelled the false king, [2] Joyei.

EW: In the Third Month of the Seventh Year, the Empress returned from Yamato, quelling the Rebellion in the Seventh Month. Answering her Petition, the Royal En, King Shouryuu, deposed the Pretender, Joei.

6.1. The text says "third month [or moon]" (the same kanji in Japanese).
6.2. This is badly worded on my part, implying that the Royal En does the deposing (it's all one sentence in the original). TokyoPop gets the object and verb in the proper order (though I wouldn't use "quell" with a person).

Better: "In the Third Month of the Seventh Year, the Empress returned from Yamato. The Royal En, King Shouryuu, having answered her Petition, the Empress quelled the Rebellion at the Close of the Seventh Month and deposed the Pretender, Joei."

7. TP: In the eighth moon, upon the Mountain of the Sage's Brush, she received the Mandate of Heaven and became the Glory-King in truth, to be revered by her people and counted among the gods.

EW: In the Eighth Month of that Year, the Empress Youko ascended Mount Hou and there accomplished her Investiture. Her Name was recorded in the Census of Heaven, and she was granted the Title of Royal Kei.

The addition is not in the original.

8. TP: In Gyouten, then, she gave final repose to the Prophet, and assigned the six officials and many governors of the land to bring order. The new calendar [1] was named Sekiraku, being the start of the Era of Red Happiness, and so the Court of the Red King began. " [2]

EW: The Royal Kei re-interred the Late Empress Yo at Gyouten, appointed six new Ministers of State, and established the Government. The Era of her Reign was designated Sekiraku, from the First Character of the Imperial Insignia and the Name of her Friend and Confident, Rakushun.

8.1. The adverb "new" is attached to the "six ministers," LIT: "six ministers were newly appointed." The era name and calendar are more or less interchangeable, as the former makes necessary the latter.
8.2. I left off this last clause (I think I figured the previous sentence said as much): "And so was inaugurated the Imperial Court of the Red Child."